Art By: Ben Templesmith
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: March 25, 2015
Life and Death
*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*
In the last issue of Gotham By Midnight, we saw the culmination of all the entities that The Midnight Shift have fought in this series, when we found out that the thing plaguing Gotham City is actually the physical manifestation of all the suffering the first settlers of Gotham caused to it's native people. The stolen children, disease, death, everything that our heroes have dealt with is a tragedy that was dealt to the original tribes of the area. After Sergeant Rook looks like he dies when a plant grows out of his head, Jim Corrigan Spectres up and the fate of Gotham is on the line when the manifestation of a past genocide demands justice from the spirit of vengeance. Will Gotham be burned for it's past evils? Let's get into this because the genocide entity and The Spectre are Godzilla size and I want to check this out.
Explain It!
Our story begins with The Spectre, larger than life and holding the giant genocide born monster at bay as he decides whether or not the abomination has weight to it's claims that Gotham should be judged. While that's going on the rest of our Midnight Shift is figuring out what the hell is going on and I hate it, but I have to eat my words here. Last issue I said after a plant grew out of the back of Agent Rook's head, that nothing would survive that........... Well, Agent Rook survived, but at least he's making feel a little better by only hanging onto life by a thread. We continue and all hell is breaking loose in the city and in the dive bar our heroes congregate in, they try and wake Jim Corrigan up from his Spectre trance....... and of course that's not going to work and while Batman flies through the sky in his Batjet, realizing that he's no match for this supernatural fuckarow, Lieutenant Weaver figures he can end the madness by simply shooting Corrigan.
No, Jim doesn't get shot, but that doesn't mean that someone isn't going to die tonight. Before Weaver could paint the walls with Jim's brains, Detective Drake let out a Canary like cry and we find out that because of her supernatural background, whenever the scream is let out someone has to die........ So yeah, shit's bad allover. With all this drama going on at the bar, it's incredible to think that something bigger is happening outside and while Sister Justine prays for the people of this terrible city, The Spectre hears the plight of the genocide monster and after communing with The Presence with a thunder blast loud enough to break every window in Gotham, the monster slinks off to the swamp in a kind of defeat. The people of Gotham won't be forgetting it or the plight of the original people to this territory though because as it leaves, it drops the black flowers we've seen throughout this story arc behind it.
In the end, the threat is over for now, but as Detective Drake has said, someone has to die and we find out when everyone, including Corrigan get their bearings again, Sister Justine's prayers were heard and because of her pure soul asking to be taken instead of the city, it seems like a barter was made. Five issues down and we've already seen our first casualty........... Which really shouldn't come as a surprise to me because I was swearing up and down that Rook died last issue.
That's it for this issue of Gotham By Midnight and man am I late on this review. You know, real life stuff and Convergence went and got in the way of me reading this book, but I hate missing issues and I'm happy as hell that I went and read this book. The story really came to a head in this conclusion to our first arc and I can't wait to see the ramifications of everyone on Corrigan's team knowing that he's a terrifying judgement monster. Every character had something to do here, even if it was solely character development and with a roster this big, that's not always easy to do. Like I say every issue, I do have some trouble following Templesmith's art, but it does totally add to the dark atmosphere Fawkes is putting out there and now that we know this was his last issue, I think I might miss Templesmith on this book.......... Yeah, I'm a whirlwind of emotions. I guess I'll just have to wait and see how the next issue looks before I can settle down a bit. Loved the book though and I can't wait to see what's in store for us next.
Bits and Pieces:
This series continues to impress and I wish I hadn't waited so long to review it. Fawkes is truly the go to supernatural guy when it comes to DC Comics and he shows us why in this issue. The stakes are the high and the emotions are strong whether they be human or not and you can't help but get lost in this dark story. Go check out Templesmith's last issue and see what everyone's been praising about Gotham By Midnight.
No, Jim doesn't get shot, but that doesn't mean that someone isn't going to die tonight. Before Weaver could paint the walls with Jim's brains, Detective Drake let out a Canary like cry and we find out that because of her supernatural background, whenever the scream is let out someone has to die........ So yeah, shit's bad allover. With all this drama going on at the bar, it's incredible to think that something bigger is happening outside and while Sister Justine prays for the people of this terrible city, The Spectre hears the plight of the genocide monster and after communing with The Presence with a thunder blast loud enough to break every window in Gotham, the monster slinks off to the swamp in a kind of defeat. The people of Gotham won't be forgetting it or the plight of the original people to this territory though because as it leaves, it drops the black flowers we've seen throughout this story arc behind it.
In the end, the threat is over for now, but as Detective Drake has said, someone has to die and we find out when everyone, including Corrigan get their bearings again, Sister Justine's prayers were heard and because of her pure soul asking to be taken instead of the city, it seems like a barter was made. Five issues down and we've already seen our first casualty........... Which really shouldn't come as a surprise to me because I was swearing up and down that Rook died last issue.
That's it for this issue of Gotham By Midnight and man am I late on this review. You know, real life stuff and Convergence went and got in the way of me reading this book, but I hate missing issues and I'm happy as hell that I went and read this book. The story really came to a head in this conclusion to our first arc and I can't wait to see the ramifications of everyone on Corrigan's team knowing that he's a terrifying judgement monster. Every character had something to do here, even if it was solely character development and with a roster this big, that's not always easy to do. Like I say every issue, I do have some trouble following Templesmith's art, but it does totally add to the dark atmosphere Fawkes is putting out there and now that we know this was his last issue, I think I might miss Templesmith on this book.......... Yeah, I'm a whirlwind of emotions. I guess I'll just have to wait and see how the next issue looks before I can settle down a bit. Loved the book though and I can't wait to see what's in store for us next.
Bits and Pieces:
This series continues to impress and I wish I hadn't waited so long to review it. Fawkes is truly the go to supernatural guy when it comes to DC Comics and he shows us why in this issue. The stakes are the high and the emotions are strong whether they be human or not and you can't help but get lost in this dark story. Go check out Templesmith's last issue and see what everyone's been praising about Gotham By Midnight.
8/10
I dont think justine is done QUITE yet...we see her in the preview for GBM after all
ReplyDeleteYou did say that to me and I completely forgot........... Well, that's two people I swore were dead and was wrong about in only 5 issues. *Gives Up Reviewer Card*
DeleteWell not quite yet! cuz i think shes gonna be a "spectre" being, she wont PHYSICALLY be there but when shit hits the fan, BOOSH SHE APPEARS
Delete